Damien Oton | At home with French Mountain Biking Star

Trans World Sport profile on Frenchman Damien Oton who is one of the world’s leading mountain bikers. He competes in the Enduro World Series, where riders race against against the clock over highly varied terrain.

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Dhaumya atone is one of the world’s leading mountain bikers he competes in the Enduro World Series where riders race against the clock over highly varied terrain Dhaumya only started racing five years ago but over the past three seasons he’s twice finished runner-up in the EWS standees aunt Hong hails from eel soup tete in the South of France situated 30 kilometers west of Perpignan this small traditional town retains a strong Catalan identity and is best

Known for the arc organ pipe shaped rock formations that stand up to 12 meters high softly avenge don’t you see SHINee’s I’ve lived here all my life 20 years now and I’m not planning on leaving it’s a great place if you’re into an active outdoor lifestyle the mountains are nearby it’s just 30

Minutes to a surfing beach and there are beautiful mountains to go out and train on also the winters are quite mild here 10 to 15 degrees so overall it’s great Daniel’s first love was racing in motorcycle enduros which he started aged 16 he won a regional championship but was unable to keep competing as he found it too expensive These days often incorporates motorcycling into his training regime heading out on his dirt bike once or twice a week it’s his favorite way of keeping in shape and is particularly good for building upper-body strength Damien’s path to the professional ranks has been far from conventional he’s originally a plumber by trade and had to juggle the demands of his day job with training and racing during the early years it wasn’t until 2014 that he signed for a major team and became a full-time pro racer these days his

Plumbing skills are strictly reserved for friends and relatives because tea for mr. pile and I was a plumber it wasn’t it’s all easy to fit in training the most frustrating thing was being at a race and knowing I could go faster but not being able to up to

Being a worker week I enjoyed the plumbing work but he made training really difficult I went running a lot but I would never have enough time to go out on the bike after work so I go running twice a week but could only train on the bike at weekends it was all

That I could manage ha Tom’s first professional ride was with caminar a small bike building company based in his hometown they’re committed to building steel frame bikes as opposed to the carbon-fiber ones used by all other race teams in 2013 they asked damião to work

With them to race in a full season of the Enduro World Series and help them develop the bike novel – secured by Daniel Tamia is a great rider he’s very fast which means we could really test the equipment in Madaya because he pushed it to its absolute limits Ellison was also able to

Interpret what he was feeling on the bike and give us some great technical feedback so we in turn could develop and improve it camon adds limited budget meant that Dania had to continue working part-time as a plumber to make ends meet Barty still achieved some good results

With the bike finishing seventh of the last race of the season finale Liguori Italy not surprisingly his performances attracted the attention of bigger teams and he was offered a ride with da Vinci for 2014 we told him to go ahead go with the Vinci because it’s a fantastic

Opportunity for you you’ll be able to make a good living from riding and have the chance to become world champion from full moon so it was a great thing for him and we were absolutely ok with it and these days we still meet up regularly as Damiani lives a couple of streets away

So he usually comes over for a chat and a catch up after every championship round In racing everybody’s looking for the ultimate combination of strong light machinery but it doesn’t come cheap Daniels 2016 bike cost upwards of 8,000 euros sit and Rodolfo Carmona so this is a full carbon frame bike at the front folks have 160 millimeters of travel and I’ve adopted some useful features from

My background in SEO for example the handlebars have quite a high lift and a pretty wide wheels are quite big for better feel and balance and I have a top of the range transmission setup it’s a wide ratio 12 speed system the best there is for enduro it makes the climbs

A lot easier demands strong work ethic and determination to succeed are reflected in his training regime every week he puts in between 15 and 25 hours some is technical work on the enduro bike but there’s also a lot of power and cardio training on the roads

For the last four years he’s worked with McCallum from the French Cycling Federation up to Montague I acid in an easy my role is to analyze and maximize his performance throughout the year long song young in the offseason we assess things to see what we can improve on q

You just keep and then set new objectives for the next season keep on Plus don’t you want commune with Danny on this last year we saw that to be the best and win the World Cup we had to put in place specific goals we had to aim for greater consistency

Throughout the season not just a few great results so maybe Marshall knew specific his Road training route takes damião through the idyllic foothills of the Eastern Pyrenees and often includes a strategically placed pit stop for some light refreshment and a debrief at his aunt’s fruit farm Dominika Elkin Nico Damien possesses all

The right qualities to be a champion this is very down-to-earth and has a great personality Ibaka knew Tommy knew he was determined and knows exactly what he wants he pushes himself extremely hard he is a fine all-round sportsman yeah and he’s very easy to work with the player named yang the enduro world

Series takes place over a six-month period in venues around Europe North and South America when he’s not travelling the competition circuit or out training dummy are spends time with his partner Navi at the house in Europe debt that he renovated himself in addition tis practical and sporting

Skills Auto also showed us his artistic side I play a little bit of guitar I’m the type of person who always needs to be doing something and it’s a nice way to pass the time I love rock music and especially old bands like dire straits and the police

My dad listened to those bands when I was a kid so I’ve grown up with their music I really enjoy it and I hope I can go on to make music myself one day one person before that day comes damião has some unfinished business to take care of having risen up mountain

Biking’s ranks in a relatively short period and twice been enduro world series runner-up Anton is preparing to tackle that toughest of challenges the climb to number one some can you see Julie having words so hard my ambition is definitely to become world champion and zero is really difficult because events are usually

Spread over two days so you have to be consistent make sure your equipment blasts the cool polishes I have a good chance but I’ll need to do it in the next two or three years as I’m starting to get a bit old [Applause] [Applause]